Puppet
by D.L. SchizoAuthoress
Summary: THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT : [3 of 6] Evan Treborn can revisit his memories and change the past. But what if he's not the only one who knows about it? (spoilers within, obviously; rating increased) Soon to be edited for errors
1. First Time Around

Title: Puppet  
  
Author: D.L. SchizoAuthoress  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Warnings: Mentions of violence and death, perhaps a little profanity. Rating may go up in further chapters.  
  
Summary: Evan Treborn can revisit his memories and change the past. But what if he's not the only one who knows about it?  
  
****  
  
A/N: I confess, I'm an Elden Henson fangirl--to the level of making banners and icons featuring him, of watching every movie he appears in that I can get my grubby little paws on, of squeaking and twitching in the movie theater every time he came onscreen. I love the man, I won't lie to you. And it's not just because he's beautiful--trust me, you don't want to argue that point--it's because he's such a talented actor.   
  
In 'The Butterfly Effect', Elden was given a sort-of main role. He was fifth in the credit list, so I guess that makes him officially a supporting actor. But give the guy ANY room to manuever and he'll steal the scene. He hijacked the movie, that's for sure. Now, I'm definitely not swooning over Ashton Kutcher, but I admit that he did a pretty good job with his part--still, it was Elden Henson's portrayal of Lenny that tugged my heartstrings.  
  
****  
  
"Puppet"  
  
'First Time Around'  
  
Sometimes, when he pastes the little decals on his planes, Lenny wonders why he ever started hanging out with his cousin Evan and the Miller kids. The three of them were all fucked up, and Tommy never liked him anyway...but then again, no one ever liked fat, ugly, stupid Lenny--ever. And if people knew the truth...if people knew what the four of them had done, well, everyone would hate fat, ugly, stupid, reclusive Lenny...and screwed-up, violent, evil Tommy...  
  
But would they hate poor, innocent little Kayleigh? Or sick, sorry, sad little Evan?  
  
Of course not.  
  
Poor, innocent little Kayleigh only went along with her brother because she had a terrible home life, and he was the only one she could still love and trust. And sick, sorry, sad little Evan only wanted to protect the girl, right? Like a proper hero. But it was Tommy who came up with the idea to blow up the mailbox, and it was Lenny who went along with it...like a weakling. And it was Lenny who stood there like a statue, watching as that mother and her baby got closer; it was Lenny who knew that they were going to die and didn't stop it...like a coward.  
  
And it didn't end there. No, once he'd come home from the hospital...once they couldn't find anything wrong with him except the lingering traces of shock, that bastard Evan and his little girlfriend had come to his window. They had enticed Lenny out into the open...out to the junkyard...out to where Tommy Miller waited, with a bonfire and a dog and a tightly knotted bag.   
  
He tried; he really did, to untie the knots--to let Crockett out. But he couldn't, he couldn't even save a stupid dog. All he could do was watch, numb, as Tommy shoved that burning branch against the bag...listen to those horrible, painful, suffering screams...  
  
So Lenny paints his planes to look as real as the pictures, pastes the little decals on, and strings them up in his room. He pretends that he's still thirteen, pretends that he's just come home from the hospital...  
  
That this time, Evan and Kayleigh never come for him.  
  
It's the only way that he can even pretend that he's okay; it's the only way that he can still imagine that he has stayed sane.  
  
****  
  
Lenny Treborn's world is perfectly structured, with every aspect of his existence as a thirteen-year-old boy carefully preserved. The walls are still painted to look like the sky, the wooden bookshelves still hold comic books--although these now languish in Mylar packaging, untouched--and the bed is still shaped like a big plastic racecar. He goes to bed at night and prays, prays that Tommy Miller and Kayleigh Miller and Evan Treborn stay away forever.  
  
But then, when has God ever listened to a killer?  
  
One day, Lenny's bedroom door opens, and cousin Evan strolls in like he owns the place. And Lenny's mom is blandly, awfully cheerful, like it is perfectly normal for her nephew to visit Lenny. As if Evan hadn't ruined Lenny's life.  
  
He listens dispassionately to Evan, who is awkwardly casting about for topics of conversation--commenting on the model airplanes...talking about...that day...  
  
Evan talks about that day and tries to laugh flippantly, as though it were nothing. As though he couldn't remember, really couldn't remember. Lenny can't conceive of not remembering, because explosions and fire haunt his dreams, haunt his days. The screams of the dying keep ringing in his ears, and then Evan's voice cuts through, that boy's despised, idiotic voice, and Lenny feels the old numbness spreading again. The words coming out of his mouth are Tommy's--his voice, gravelly and low, sounds so much like Tommy's vicious teenage snarl that Lenny is afraid.  
  
But Evan is either too deaf or too stupid to be afraid of those words, of Tommy's voice coming out of Lenny's mouth. He pushes, he prods, he pleads...  
  
And Lenny slams him into the wall, breaking a bookcase and snapping several model airplanes from their fishing line in the process. His eyes--cold, haunted, dead--bore deep into Evan's wide, frightened ones; his fingers flex and tighten around Evan's neck, which is rough with stubble. Maybe Evan says something, maybe he doesn't. Maybe Lenny says something, maybe he doesn't. Lenny is too far-gone to know. All he knows is that Evan is leaving, going, gone...and that he is alone again.  
  
Alone and broken, a terrified twenty-year-old man, crying like a child. 


	2. Once More, With Feeling

Title: Puppet  
  
Author: D.L. SchizoAuthoress  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Warnings: Mentions of violence and death, perhaps a little profanity. Rating may go up in further chapters.  
  
Summary: Evan Treborn can revisit his memories and change the past. But what if he's not the only one who knows about it?  
  
****  
  
A/N: In the movie, Lenny is not mentioned in the first alternate timeline. Obviously, I view this as a grave injustice. However, for the sake of continuity and just because I like writing Elden's characters, whoever they may be, I present you with my theory on Lenny, in the first alternate timeline.  
  
****  
  
"Puppet"  
  
'Once More, With Feeling'  
  
When Lenny Treborn was growing up, there were these three kids in his neighborhood: his cousin Evan Treborn, with the crazy father, and Tommy and Kayleigh Miller, whose parents had divorced. Evan and Kayleigh had been linked as girlfriend and boyfriend even back when it was an insult, when they were young enough to deny it and chase around the other kids who sang at the top volume, "Evan and Kayleigh, sittin' in a tree; K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"  
  
But Lenny knows that he was the only one who noticed Tommy Miller, and the way that he would look at dopey, longhaired Evan with such burning hate in his eyes. Lenny knows that he was the only one who noticed how hurt and scared Tommy always was--at first, of George Miller, and then, of losing his sister. Especially of losing his sister to pitiful, vacant-brained, smart-ass Evan Treborn. Lenny noticed, and though he never really understood the depths of Tommy's pain and loss and fear, he sympathized. He sympathized in a way so that Tommy never pushed him away.  
  
When they were thirteen, he and Tommy and Evan and Kayleigh, Tommy dug an illegal firecracker out of the junk in his basement. Evan and Kayleigh weren't around; they were too cool to be seen with fat loser Lenny, even if Evan and Lenny were blood relatives, and sworn enemies were friendlier to each other than Tommy and Evan. Tommy wanted to go blow something up--to go destroy.   
  
But somehow, Lenny talked him out of putting the 'Blockbuster' in a mailbox. Well, less 'talked' and more pleaded. Lenny painted a horrific picture of what could happen if somebody went too close to the mailbox when it blew up--where the images came from, he had no idea, but he spoke of them like he'd seen them...or he would.  
  
So they stuck the dynamite into a big anthill instead. It rained dead ants and dirt in the woods for two straight minutes--he and Tommy ran around screaming like idiots before they collected their wits enough to bolt down to Lenny's house and hose each other down in the backyard.  
  
****  
  
Lenny knows how fragile Tommy's world was. Sometimes, in his dreams, he gets flashes of stuff that never happened, but the stuff is so real that it had to have happened. He dreams of Tommy needling him to put the Blockbuster into a house-shaped mailbox, of watching a mother and baby get blown to bits. He dreams of Tommy setting fire to Evan's dog, Crockett.  
  
But it didn't quite happen that way. Instead, Kayleigh and Evan and Tommy went to the movies after the anthill experiment. And Tommy saw something that made him flip out. Some insensitive jerk tripped him then, and Tommy beat the shit out of the guy, so badly that the insensitive jerk ended up dying of something like internal hemorrhaging.  
  
After that, Tommy Miller spent most of his teenage years in and out of juvenile hall. He became cold, and his teenage meanness hardened into real cruelty. Lenny's family moved away when he turned sixteen, and the only one left who cared about Tommy was Kayleigh. Tommy clung to her obsessively, desperately.   
  
Lenny, when he finally heard all of this, understood. He dreamed about his future sometimes, a future that wasn't true but felt too real not to be--a future where he had consciously frozen himself in his thirteen-year-old world. Sky-and-cloud painted walls, model airplanes, and prayers that he would never see Evan or Kayleigh or Tommy again.  
  
****  
  
The casket is closed, and the funeral services are brief. Near the back of the chapel, Lenny hovers with a yellow rose in one hand and regrets in his heart. No one had ever said a word about the abuses that Tommy had suffered as a child at his father's hands. But Lenny knew. Lenny knew, and he hopes that Tommy knew he didn't think it was Tommy's fault. He hopes that Tommy knew that Lenny never blamed Tommy for what Mr. Miller did.  
  
Lenny watches Kayleigh, crying so uncontrollably, and he's never hated anyone more than he's hated her. Except for Evan--Lenny hates Evan more than should be humanly possible to hate another person, especially a person that he's related to. Mr. Miller never touched Kayleigh, never hurt her, never did anything but be a perfect father to her. Didn't anybody care; didn't anybody realize how much that must have tortured Tommy? To see how lovingly his sister was handled in comparison to the shitty way that he, Tommy Miller, was treated?  
  
Lenny clenches his fist around the rose, ignoring the pricking of the thorns, even welcoming the pain. He deserves this. He deserves this because he was silent, because even after Tommy told him the horrible things that his father did, Lenny never said anything or did anything to help.  
  
Lenny hates Evan Treborn, hates him for Tommy and for himself. Not caring how evil the thought is, Lenny hopes that Evan stays in prison, in that miserable place, and rots like the selfish trash that he really is. Evan had everything, and Tommy had only his sister's love and compassion. And Evan, the self-centered, selfish bastard, took Kayleigh away...and killed Tommy, killed Lenny's friend. Killed Tommy when the guy was blinded, in pain, screaming and crying on the ground--bashed Tommy's head in like a wild, attacking animal.  
  
A single rose falls into the six-feet-deep hole in the ground, its petals--yellow for friendship--crumpled and smeared with drops of blood. 


	3. Third Time's the Something or Other

Title: Puppet  
  
Author: D.L. SchizoAuthoress  
  
Rating: R, collectively  
  
Warnings: Mentions of violence and death, perhaps a little profanity. Rating may go up in further chapters.  
  
Summary: Evan Treborn can revisit his memories and change the past. But what if he's not the only one who knows about it?  
  
****  
  
"Puppet"  
  
'Third Time's the...Something-or-other'   
  
Lenny Treborn sometimes stares at the moon, blurry and pale behind thick glass and metal grating, and wonders what his life would be like it he hadn't gone along with cousin Evan and Kayleigh Miller that day. He wonders why Evan isn't here too, at Sunnyvale Institution. Uncle Jason was crazy, and Lenny's crazy, so shouldn't Evan be at least half-crazy?  
  
He certainly seemed half-crazy on that day. Lenny had watched, trailing behind Evan and Kayleigh as they made their way to the junkyard. Evan stopped walking, looked disoriented, and suddenly became frantic--talking about cutting a rope, something...he knew something. And he used Lenny, used Lenny's guilt and horror over the poor, dead mother and the poor, dead, innocent little baby...pressed that shard of metal into Lenny's hand and told him to atone for their deaths.  
  
As if Lenny was the only guilty one.  
  
Lenny knows who the guilty ones are. Lenny knew, and Lenny still knows and believes that he did the right thing. He did the right thing by killing Tommy Miller, because even if Tommy spared Evan's dog, it wouldn't bring back those two people he killed. But nobody knows that, and nobody would believe Lenny if he could say so.  
  
Because Lenny is crazy.  
  
Whether he was crazy in the beginning, Lenny doesn't know. He knows that it's supposed to be wrong to kill people, but shoving that piece of metal into Tommy's back...it felt so right. Watching Tommy shudder, and gasp, and fall down in the dirt felt like it was right. And of course there was no point in running away, or denying that he'd done it--not with Kayleigh screaming and screaming, and Evan staring at him in horror, and Tommy's dead body between them. So Lenny just sat down on the ground and waited.  
  
Now he lies in his bare room at the institution, strapped to the table and dead-numb with medication, still waiting. He sees things, sees people all the way the are and the ways they could be. You know, if things had gone differently? Maybe he dreams, or maybe he has visions, but whatever it is, he knows.  
  
Lenny knows about all kinds of things. Kayleigh is a crackwhore living in a rundown motel room, Tommy has been dead for seven years, and Evan is going to college. But Kayleigh could have been a sorority girl, or a waitress at a truck stop. Tommy could have killed Crockett and gone to juvenile hall and become a criminal, or he could have been abused by his dad. Evan could be in a fraternity, or studying psychology, or anything. He could be on the other side.  
  
The waiting has consumed Lenny Treborn. The waiting is all that he has left. And if he wasn't crazy in the beginning, he's crazy now.  
  
****  
  
Evan is here. He has stolen something, a key card maybe, so that he can sneak around the institution like a thief--he is awkward again, stunned by Lenny's situation. He shouldn't be, not really. Aunt Andrea and cousin Evan have both shut Lenny and his family out for years, or at least that's what Mom says when she visits. Lenny reminds them too much of Jason Treborn, doesn't he?  
  
Groggy with the medication, Lenny lacks the strength to turn his head, to look at his cousin. But there is something he doesn't yet know, and so he has to ask. "When you put that shard in my hand, you knew...you knew that something was going to happen."  
  
When Evan speaks, Lenny is faintly surprised. "Yeah," Evan says, sadly, "I knew."  
  
Lenny hadn't expected Evan to answer, and he hadn't expected the sudden grief that comes with this knowing. "Then you should be here...where I am. You should be...where I am..."  
  
They both know that this is the truth. Something lets them know that this is the truth. And Evan can't deal with it, can't deal with his cousin in this nightmare place, can't deal with the condemnation that he fully deserves...just can't deal.  
  
Evan vanishes from Lenny's field of vision, and a flat buzz that is the door being keyed open tells him that Evan has left.  
  
For good. 


End file.
